My Americauna is gasping and wheezing. I've watched video of gapeworm and it looks like that. But then she sneezes occasionally too. She is eating and drinking, but was drooling some of the water. Her eyes are still bright and clear and there is no gunk in her nose. She's having a hard time getting comfortable laying down. I have her separated from the other birds. What does this sound like? We do have tons of slugs on our property. None of my other birds are showing symptoms.

Sometimes the "sneezing" is really them trying to cough up the worms, as they will fill the thoat of the bird and if one has it, they all do. I just treated mine for it and they seem MUCH better and no more gaping, and they are gaining weight again...I never saw any of mine cough/sneeze, but one was "gaping" a lot, and kinda lethargic...I treated with the safeguard liquid goat wormer, 3 ml for two days, then will retreat in 10 days also.

Not sure what I am going to do about their run...read an old article that said salt will kill the earthworm, and the gapeworm all the way down to the eggs, but probably won't be able to grow anything in the run, if I salt it.

I should clean their coop, each time I treat them, but only have enough for one deep cleaning, as I just deep cleaned a bit ago for cocci...so am going to have to wait till the second dose to deep clean the coop and hope and pray they don't get reinfected. I did let them out into the run, but am keeping their food and water, in the coop now...keeps it cleaner and won't get contaminated.

here is the article I ran across, when researching this...you have to scroll down quite a ways to get to the actual article and for treating the ground, it is at the every end of the article. Sounds like it is possible to rid the run of gapeworm with salt and a few other things, but seems salt is the best...I live on a mountain, so am hoping, treating the run, when I do their last treatment, will run off and the land won't be totally sterile????

I still haven't found out if I retreat 10 days from the start of the wormer, or 10 days from end of two day treatment. But it did work on mine. I was unsure, but figured, if it was the gapes, best to treat, than to lose some...I treated them all. I am also a bit worried, letting them out in the run too....but I hated keeping them in the coop, although they did do better kept inside during the treatment.

Poor things are now confused, though, as I used putting their food and water back in the coop, as a sign it was time for bed...now they don't know whether to go out, or stay in!

It may well be gapeworm, but after treating for it, I would get some Tylan 50 and start her on 1 ml by mouth or as a shot for 5 days. Tylan powder is also available if you would rather put it in the water, but takes longer to work. If it is not gapeworm you may lose time that you could be treating a respiratory condition. Here is a link for respiratory diseases: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Honestly I've tried feeding my chickens slugs and none of them ate them. But this chicken is new to my flock in the last 2 months, so she may be eating them. I will make sure never to do that again.

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Earthworms are the vector for gapeworms...although other hosts may have popped up, since that article was written, but earthworms are still the main vector. I know that article is long, but if you skim through it, it does give some really great info, and can really help with diagnosing the gapes.

If you want to worm her, go to TSC and get fenbendazole 10% (Safeguard or Panacur, liquid or paste). According to a study that I read, the dose recommended for gapes is 20mg/kg three days in a row, that's .2ml per 2.2 pounds.

How much does she weigh?

-Kathy

Disclaimer: I have never had gapes and I read here on BYC that they are rare, so I have not had a chance to prove or dis-prove the recommended worming, but I can tell you that I have used 5 times as much for several days and seen no ill effects from it.

If you want to worm her, go to TSC and get fenbendazole 10% (Safeguard or Panacur, liquid or paste). According to a study that I read, the dose recommended for gapes is 20mg/kg three days in a row, that's .2ml per 2.2 pounds.

How much does she weigh?

-Kathy

Disclaimer: I have never had gapes and I read here on BYC that they are rare, so I have not had a chance to prove or dis-prove the recommended worming, but I can tell you that I have used 5 times as much for several days and seen no ill effects from it.

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Oh that's good to know casportpony! I used the goat wormer for 2 days, do you know if the retreatment is 10 days from the first day of treatement, or 10 days from the last day? I got the info on dosage, second hand, from Dawg...through someone that got the info from him, in other words....tried PMing him to ask, but he must be busy. I got the one you put in the water. Yeah I also read gapeworm is rare, but had one chicken, that was getting worse, and another starting to "gape". so figured it couldn't hurt to worm them...and they are not doing the "gaping" any more, so it had to be the gapes...we have tons of wild turkeys around, and I know they have been all over the property...haven't seen any pheasants here though....but did toss a lot of earthworms to them, and then the "gaping" started. No other signs though, beside lethargy and not eating as much as the others...IDK...since it's been sooo wet here, I figure the parasites are on overtime, this year...it was a guess though...at first, I thought she was just adjusting her crop, until she started doing it constantly. Then I thought maybe she had something caught in her throat...but after the 2 days on the wormer stopped it, I figured I had the gapes.